A couple of hot smoked peppered mackeral fillets are sitting in a marinade of a big splash of bottled teriyaki sauce and a sprinkling of spring onions. So, that's them ready for the table in about 30 minutes.

A salad of spinach, cucumber and bean sprouts waits for a quick toss in a dressing of rice wine vinegar and sugar.

I've been off my cooking game for a couple nights. Schedules running into the evening hours have resulted in takeout deli and restaurant dinners.Today I've got a pork tenderloin marinating in balsamic vinegar, rosemary, shallots, and black peppercorns. I'll be sifting through the CSA box for side dishes.

This pork tenderloin with apple salsa is in my queue for this weekend but up first tonight is CI's chicken and dumplings. Sadly, it is already stew weather here. http://leitesculinaria.com/11747/reci...

I made one of my favorite meatless dinners, tortang talong, which is essentially a Spanish tortilla made with roasted eggplant. I switched it up by bypassing the oriental eggplant I typically buy for a smallish variety of eggplant I would usually stuff and a very small striped variety. The small striped eggplant was a lot firmer than I expected and extremely seedy, but the seeds took on a nutty flavor with the roasting. Very tasty even if the texture wasn't right for torta. The other eggplant was absolutely perfect: after roasting it was almost custardy in the torta, which is what you want. Now if only I could get that nutty taste with that creamy texture...

I had canned some Marinara sauce a few weeks ago, too many tomatoes. So tonight I cooked up some ground pork, added in the sauce and we had pasta for dinner. I had some left over marinated cucumbers, I added in some Red Siberian tomato slices and some cucumbers for a side. So tasty!!!

I add lemon juice, Ball 's Blue Book has a Basil -Garlic Tomato Sauce recipe and a Seasoned Tomato sauce. I just added their recommended amount of commercial lemon juice. It was 2T. to each quart, then fill with your sauce, process for 40 minutes or so.

*Choose heads that are dense and heavy for their size, which means the leaves are fresher. The best way to know if a head is heavy for its size is to pick up a few that are about the same size and feel their weight in your hands. If you, like my kids, hate the leafy green parts, look for the heads that have more stem than leaf, and a lighter yellowish green color to the leafy part rather than a darker green color.

PASTE INGREDIENTS

- 4 Tablespoons minced garlic (about 5 or 6 large cloves)- 4 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger root (about a 2" segment)- 1/3 cup crushed red chili flakes (like the kind you get with your pizza - you can find 13 to 16 oz. pouches of this in the Mexican spice section at most any grocery store) 1/4 cup for mild, 1/2 cup for extra spicy - I used 1/2 cup.- 1/4 cup steamed white rice, lightly packed, depending on how much cabbage you use. Less cabbage, less rice... (short or long grain is fine - I used jasmine because it was handy)- 1/4 cup fish sauce (like Tiparos or Three Crabs)- 1/4 cup sugar- 1/4 cup water for blending

- 1/3 cup of water for getting the remaining seasoning off the bowl and making additional brine

1) In a large stainless steel or mixing bowl, toss the raw cabbage and the salt together to pre-brine the cabbage. Make sure to thoroughly incorporate the salt throughout the cabbage. In 10 to 15 minutes, you should start to see the cabbage leach liquid and wilt.

Let the cabbage sit for about 2 hours, tossing and redistributing every 30 minutes to ensure even brining. While you're waiting for the pre-brine to finish, it's a good idea to make the paste. (Step 3.)

2) After 2 hours of pre-brining, rinse the cabbage with enough water to cover the cabbage by 4 or 5 inches by swishing the cabbage in the water 7 or 8 times. Throw out the water from the first rinse and repeat the process.

Then collect the cabbage in fistfuls and gently squeeze out the excess liquid. You should have something that looks like this.

3) Make the paste by putting all the paste ingredients into a blender and blend until you can't see the individual grains of rice. Pour the paste over the cabbage.

4) Get into the bowl with your hands and mix that paste into the cabbage until all the pieces are evenly and thoroughly coated.

5) Pack your kimchi into a bottle or other tight-lidded container (This time I repurposed a half gallon kimchi jar) and use the last 1/4 cup of water to swish around the mixing bowl, pick up all the remaining paste, and pour that liquid on top of your kimchi.

Your batch of kimchi is now ready for fermentation in a dark but not cold place like the inside of your cupboard.

How often does it take you to eat that much kimchi? I always say I'm going to make napa kimchi, particularly with Asian pears also coming into season, but the quantities in the recipes always seem daunting.

You can use pear instead of sugar in the kimchi paste, but I think you need to use chilies if you're going to use the pear. Without the heat to balance, like in dongchimi, everything just tastes sweet to me.

I don't make dongchimi, but my mom does, and I agree that a little heat is needed to offset the sweetness. For making regular Napa kimchi, I like the predictability of a certain measurement of sugar versus the variable sweetness of pears.

bl/sl chx grilled easy spice nothing major for once. the keikis will be very pleased.corn on cob, oven roasted steak fries, salad with yellow pear tomatoes and mayo (DD will pitch a fit as will DS#1) oh well. banana cake just out of oven, mango margies for those who imbibe